Kindergartners investigate the life cycle of the monarch. Children document the stages of development through science journaling and verbally incorporating the vocabulary: egg, larva, pupa and adult butterfly. In literature, children noted discrepancies in reading a fictional account,The Very Hungry Caterpillar and scientific—informational reading of the development of the monarch. We await the emergence of beautiful monarch as we count down ten days.

Students re-teaching concepts to others is an effective means to support understand and retention of learning. Kindergartners were excited to welcome the scientist from Grade 5 as they shared their experiment with an egg to demonstrate osmosis. Our Grade 5 science teachers explained their hypotheses and revisited us 24 hours later to allow kindergartners to investigate changes. Kindergartner’s inquiry prompted our student scientists to make predictions and investigate further.